Conventionally, the fishing reel which winds a fishing line on the spool by the rotation of the rotary frame and is the reciprocal movement of the spool shaft as foregoing, is called a spinning reel and well-known.
A spinning reel is box-shaped and has a front wall and side walls, the front wall providing a through bore through which a tubular driven shaft and the spool shaft are inserted, so that the rotary frame is supported to one axial end of the driven shaft and the spool to one axial end of the spool shaft. A drive shaft having a handle bar is supported to the side wall at a right angle with the driven shaft and spool shaft, and a transmission mechanism for transmitting rotation of the handle from the drive shaft to the rotary frame through the driven shaft is housed within the reel body.
The transmission mechanism comprises a master gear supported to the drive shaft and a pinion provided at the driven shaft, so that rotation of the handle bar is transmitted to the rotary frame at increased speed through engagement of the pinion with the master gear.
A reciprocation mechanism is provided which comprises a traverse groove provided at the outer periphery of a part of the spool shaft within the reel body and an engaging member engageable with the traverse groove and supported to a part of the driven shaft within the reel body, the engaging member engaging with the traverse groove to allow the spool shaft to reciprocate longitudinally of the reel body following the rotation of the driven shaft.
The reciprocation mechanism performs a smooth reciprocation of the spool, but puts the rotation of the rotary frame in synchronism with the longitudinal movement of spool, so that the fishing line guided by the rotary frame is wound on the spool at a position fixed relative to the rotary frame. As a result, the line cannot be wound uniformly axially throughout a trunk of the spool, thereby creating a problem in that the would line becomes lumped in a wave as the amount of the wound line increases.
Therefore, the line, during casting, is subjected to an excessive resistance against being drawn out, or the lumped line gets tangled, thereby lessening the casting distance.
The development department of the assignee of the inventor, has developed a fishing reel which has a master gear comprising a toothed portion and an annular toothed portion smaller in diameter than the toothed portion of master gear, formed radially inwardly thereof, and engageable with a pinion; an association shaft which has an association gear engageable with the smaller diameter toothed portion of the master gear and supported rotatably to the driven gear; and an engaging member engageable with a traverse groove at the spool shaft and housed in an inner space of the rotary frame, so that the rotary frame does not rotate in synchronism with the longitudinal movement of the spool.
This reel, however, has the engaging portion disposed in an inner space of the rotary frame, whereby it should be mounted on a projection of the association shaft projecting outwardly from the axial end of the driven shaft. Also, the association shaft and driven shaft should be concentric and free in relative rotation to each other. Hence, the reel as a whole is complex in construction and troublesome to assemble and machine.